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\nIf you work on freelancing, consulting, multi-level-marketing (MLM) or really any kind of sector in which your livelihood depends on finding new clients interested in your wares, chances are you spend a lot of time thinking about the art of winning new clients.<\/p>\n\n
Strategies for landing new clients has been dissected, analyzed and refined endlessly. You only need to look at carefully curated sites like The Economic Secretariat<\/a> to gain a sense of how many powerful MLMs are out there finding creative new ways to build a healthy client base.<\/p>\n But winning clients is only part of the picture if you want to build a sustainable business model. Sometimes you\u2019ll need to bite the proverbial bullet and let a client go \u2014 yes, even if it hurts your back pocket.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s six of my personal red flags. If any of these happen regularly, I was a freelancer shaped hole in my client\u2019s virtual office wall.<\/p>\n 1. Reluctant to Pay or General \u201cAttitude\u201d About Money<\/strong><\/p>\n Let\u2019s get the big, obvious, nasty one out the way first: Money.<\/p>\n In my experience, this is by far the most common issue a client-facing business is going to have to contend with.<\/p>\n It might start with a bit of grumbling about your invoice. You know the drill: \u201cWow, that much this week? Are you able to offer a discount for this much work?\u201d Or it could be a little more passive aggressive than that. Maybe you\u2019ll start getting emails where your client casually drops how expensive your services are and how your being on their payroll is undermining their profits. 2. Unreasonableness<\/strong><\/p>\n This one is a big problem for freelancers, but I\u2019m sure similar versions of it exist for any kind of consultant or service provider paid to solve problems. At some point or another you\u2019ll encounter the (and yes, I\u2019m going to capitalize this one) Unreasonable Client.<\/p>\n \u201cHey can you write this article to make people feel sad, but do it an an upbeat way?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cUm\u2026 I like that purple bit there. Keep it purple. But can you also make it look green?\u201d<\/p>\n Writing as a moderately jaded mid-forty year old who\u2019s never played Fortnite, the depressing fact is this: A lot of people think they know exactly what they want, but they don\u2019t. They\u2019re actually deeply confused about what they want, and the solution they\u2019ve found is to pay someone to reconcile their existential ambivalence. Or put simply, they\u2019ll want the impossible.<\/p>\n If these impossible scenarios happen over and over, just get out of there. You can\u2019t fix their problem because that would require fixing them. And unless you\u2019re a shrink, that\u2019s above your pay grade.<\/p>\n The other big red flag which falls under the \u201cunreasonable\u201d category is deadlines. Every now and then emergency deadlines will happen. Don\u2019t sweat that stuff. But if every other week you feel like your whole schedule is being derailed by a client\u2019s sudden urgent need for something right now, fire them. Yes, even if they pay really well.<\/p>\n Deadline unreasonableness is poison to designing a manageable work week. Take the money hit, cut your losses and exit, stage left.<\/p>\n 3. Your Approach or Recommendations are Repeatedly Being Rejected<\/strong><\/p>\n This is a quick \u2019n simple one. If your client continually dislikes your approach, or if they continually second guess your suggestions, you\u2019re dealing with a lack of chemistry and possibly a lack of trust.<\/p>\n When this happens to me, I don\u2019t leave immediately. I give it a good month to see if we can find a workable middle ground. But if you see no improvement after a few encounters, it\u2019s probably time to seek greener pastures.<\/p>\n
\nMy advice (after being a patsy for this nonsense one too many times) is to explain your approach to setting your fee once, and once only. If reluctance or attitude about paying you for your honest day\u2019s work persists, plan your exit from that client relationship. It\u2019ll only get worse.<\/p>\n![\"Stressed](\"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/strcus.jpg\")
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